NJ players on cerebral palsy national soccer squad: 'This team changed my life’
Jake Kaplan had never met someone else with cerebral palsy, until he went to his first U.S. soccer national team training camp.
He suffered a stroke before he was born, resulting in brain damage. His entire left side is weak, and he has limited use of his left hand and foot.
Yet Kaplan grew up playing baseball and soccer in the same season, plus a little flag football. His father, Adam Kaplan, was his first coach.
Trying to hit a baseball required more coordination than Jake could manage, so he focused on soccer. Adam Kaplan also signed his son up for karate, where he became "the kid at the front of the pack chasing the ball," more confident and aggressive on the field.
Yet when Jake Kaplan tried out for travel soccer in his hometown of Marlboro starting in third grade, he was rejected three times. He switched to the Aberdeen-Matawan Soccer Club, the town where his dad had grown up and Jake lived until he was 4.
"The coach (Dennis Boutote) pulled me aside and told me I'm not making the team for my soccer skills. He basically told me I had no skills," Kaplan recalled. "He pointed to my heart, and said he couldn't teach me to play with that. It was because of my effort and my aggression and my desire to compete."
Marlboro's Kaplan a World Cup veteran
Kaplan and Shea Hammond of Montclair are among the youngest members of the U.S. CP men's national team at the Parapan American Games, which begins on Nov. 17 in Chile.
Kaplan discovered the team, which is open to players with cerebral palsy, stroke or a traumatic brain injury, as a Marlboro High School senior, and emailed coach Stuart Sharp about potential tryouts. He was on the bronze-medal squad at the 2019 Parapans, and again at the World Cup in the summer of 2022, though he was unable to play due to injury.
CP soccer is played with seven per side, instead of the typical 11.
"Seeing how other people with cerebral palsy carried themselves, and hold themselves with such high esteem, flipped the switch in me," said Kaplan, who can dribble, juggle, pass and shoot, though almost exclusively with his right foot.
"Why can't I be like them? Why can't I be confident with myself? Being on this team has changed my life."
More: NJ defender started for Deaf national soccer team at world championships in Malaysia
The CP national team flew to Santiago on Nov. 13 and had several practice sessions planned before the opening ceremony.
Montclair's Hammond made first national team at 13
It's full circle for Hammond, who made his national team debut in Santiago at age 16. He grew up playing for his father Ashley at Soccer Domain FC, went on to Montclair Kimberley and was invited to his first national team camp at age 13.
The match schedule is as packed as the players' suitcases. The United States will face host Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Canada within a six-day span. The medal round begins on Nov. 25.
Team USA is ranked No. 4 in the world. But all the Parapan squads are in the top 25.
"Growing up with CP, there's no cure. There's always something to shoot for, always a way I can make my body stronger," said Hammond, 21, who scored five goals at the 2019 World Cup. "It's the same way with U.S. Soccer. There's always another tournament, always something else to work toward. Our goal is to win a gold medal."
National CP team 'focused on gold'
After Parapans, Hammond will head back to Clemson to finish up his undergraduate degree. The first undergraduate in the Tigers' Paralympic Soccer Program, Hammond is majoring in sports communication, with a minor in nonprofit leadership. Hammond founded his own nonprofit, CP Soccer, at his father's Clifton facility in 2017, and now has more than a dozen locations around the country.
A West Virginia grad, Kaplan is based in Atlanta, where U.S. Soccer is building out a new training facility. He and three other CP national teammates train four days a week alongside Atlanta United's academy teams, and play in a 7-on-7 league on Wednesday nights.
"It goes back to sacrifice," Sharp said. "If you're giving up all this time, there's got to be a purpose to it. We'll go there focused on gold. ... From the moment we get on the plane, our focus is gold."
Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.
Want to share your story with me?
Email: JHavsy@gannett.com
Twitter: @dailyrecordspts
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: NJ players vie for US Soccer cerebral palsy team at Parapan Am Games
